Ionising radiation: there is no safe level
Why There Is No Safe Level of Man Made Radiation, Radiation Prevention, [Good diagrams, photos and video] People on the west coast of North America inhaled an average of 5 hot particles every day during the month of April 2011 alone. Arnie Gundersen, Fairewinds, 8 July 15
Nuclear Myths Abound
Many public figures like to equate environmental effects of the Nuclear Industry to things such as bananas, X-rays, and even taking a flight to Mexico. Below we will do our best to explain to you, exactly why they are so very, very wrong.
This article is an excerpt of a larger feature coming out in May, and specifically focuses on man made radiation. It isn’t meant to minimise the health affects of natural forms of radiation, as there is no safe dose of radiation.
Let’s Talk Bananas
There exists in the world, naturally occurring forms of radiation. There are many of them, they come in many different shapes and forms. We have adapted to some of them, others, not so much.
Bananas contain a radioactive isotope called Potassium40 (k40). This isotope is also naturally found in milk, soil, and countless other things. Even oranges, as noted here.
If you have one gram of potassium from a banana, only 0.0117% of that potassium is considered radioactive.
Now to put things in perspective, if you have one gram of cesium (which mimics potassium in our bodies) 100% of that gram is radioactive.
And that’s not all.
I’m sure everyone has heard the term “half life” by now. Without getting too geeky on the subject, I will try to explain exactly what that means below………… http://radiationprevention.com/safe-level-manmade-radiation/#ixzz3fR1xuR8z
Fuel loaded into Japan’s Sendai #nuclear reactors, amid community doubts on its safety
Reactor in Japan being loaded with nuke fuel before restart ,Stars and Stripes, By By MARI YAMAGUCHI The Associated Press July 7, 2015 TOKYO — A Japanese utility on Tuesday began loading fuel into a nuclear reactor where operations are scheduled to resume next month in the country’s first restart under safety requirements set following the Fukushima disaster.
Kyushu Electric Power Co. said the first four fuel bundles were loaded into the Sendai plant’s No. 1 reactor as of late Tuesday. A crane slowly lifts each bundle out of a cooling fuel storage pool and places it into the reactor, in a round- the-clock operation. The utility plans to finish loading all 157 fuel bundles Friday ahead of final inspections before restarting the reactor around Aug. 10.
All of Japan’s more than 40 reactors are offline for repairs or safety checks. Sendai No. 1 is one of 25 reactors seeking restarts and under safety inspection, as Prime Minister Shinzo Abe’s government wants to operate as many of them as possible …..
The second reactor in Sendai is scheduled to be restarted in October.
While the trade ministry and local municipalities have approved the restart of the two reactors in southern Japan, many residents oppose the plan, citing potential danger from active volcanos in the region. Opponents of the restarts and nuclear experts are also concerned the evacuation plans in case of a disaster may not work effectively.
USA’s faith groups unite in push for clean energy
From Pope Francis to Green Muslims, faith groups steadfast in push for clean energy, Midwest Energy News, BY Kari Lydersen, 9 July 15 Rev. Booker Steven Vance took to the pulpit in historic Old St. Patrick’s Church in downtown Chicago on June 22 to praise Pope Francis’ ground-breaking encyclicalon climate change and sustainability.
Vance attached a very concrete and local element to the Pope’s sweeping call to action. He and other religious and environmental leaders hosting a press conference declared that passing a proposed Clean Jobs bill in the Illinois legislature is one way the Pope’s call to action should be answered.
“The encyclical provides an opportunity for a game-changer, bringing this conversation to a whole new level,” said Vance. “I’m talking about the bill downstate in Springfield that deals with clean air, clean energy and clean jobs. The pope is absolutely correct, we are responsible and the onus falls on us.”
That same evening 90 miles north in Milwaukee, the Islamic Environmental Group of Wisconsin, also known as the Wisconsin Green Muslims, gathered to break the Ramadan fast together while also talking about a spiritual obligation to care for the earth, in part by reducing carbon emissions and embracing a more sustainable lifestyle…………
The Clean Jobs bill would create about 32,000 jobs in Illinois, according to proponents, by increasing the state’s commitment to renewable energy and energy efficiency. A study by the Union of Concerned Scientists found it would spur $23 billion in clean energy investment and lower consumer bills by a total of $12 billion over 15 years.
The bill has widespread support — including from interfaith groups and religious leaders — but it also faces competing bills backed by powerful energy interests and a state budget crisis that is consuming the legislature’s attention.
Meanwhile the Wisconsin Green Muslims also are up against powerful forces in trying to promote clean energy……….http://midwestenergynews.com/2015/07/09/from-pope-francis-to-green-muslims-faith-groups-steadfast-in-push-for-clean-energy/
107 nations pledge to eliminate nuclear weapons, but snubbed by nuclear nations
Looking back on the nuclear non-proliferation treaty (NPT) review conference, May 2015
ICAN Campaign Update, June 2015: 107 nations pledge to stigmatise, prohibit and eliminate nuclear weapons
By the end of the month-long Non-Proliferation Treaty (NPT) review conference in New York, 107 governments had endorsed an Austrian-sponsored pledge “to fill the legal gap for the prohibition and elimination of nuclear weapons”. Although this high-level conference, which concluded on 22 May, could not adopt a consensus outcome document, the preferred course of action for the majority of nations was clear: it is time to begin negotiations on a new treaty to prohibit nuclear weapons outright and establish a framework for their elimination. …
https://gallery.mailchimp.com/a6e5567f81275b06aabcfd87e/files/June2015Update_ICAN.pdf
Nuclear disarmament? Forget it.
- More than 100 countries snubbed by nuclear powers
- UK defence budget – nuclear v conventional
The latest nuclear non-proliferation treaty (NPT) review conference did not make waves. There was hardly a word in the mainstream media.
Perhaps it was not surprising. What is there newsworthy in hundreds of diplomats and scores of NGOs over a period of four weeks calling for nuclear disarmament, in effect praising motherhood and apple pie?
Yet the UN-sponsored conference in New York did not end in bland consensus. Far from it. It ended in disarray and angry exchanges. http://www.theguardian.com/news/defence-and-security-blog/2015/jun/02/nuclear-disarmament-forget-it
Mounting risk and costs of new Vogtle nuclear reactors shown at hearing
Hearing on New Vogtle Nuclear Reactors Provides New Information on Mounting Risks and Costs July 7th, 2015 ›
Members of the public voice concerns about the Vogtle expansion at the GA PSC hearing
http://blog.cleanenergy.org/2015/07/07/hearing-on-new-vogtle-nuclear-reactors-provides-new-information-on-mounting-risks-and-costs/Below is a Georgia Utility Update first published on July 1, 2015 by Robert “Bobby” B. Baker, Jr. with Freeman, Mathis & Gary, LLP who serves as SACE’s legal counsel in the ongoing semi-annual Vogtle Construction Monitoring (VCM) review before the Georgia Public Service Commission (PSC). Mr. Baker served three terms as a Georgia PSC Commissioner and he provides an invaluable perspective. SACE has consistently intervened and is extremely concerned about the project’s negative impacts on customers given the significant cost increases and schedule delays that have now eroded any supposed benefits, according to experts who testified at the July 23, 2015 PSC hearing. The audiocast of the hearing is available in two parts: part 1 has the Jacobs/Roetger panel and part 2 continues with Jacobs/Roetger until witness Philip Hayet begins at ~37:33. U.S. taxpayers are also at risk should the project default as $8.3 billion in federal loan guarantees for the project were just recently finalized, more than five years after they were originally offered. Additionally, the proposed expansion poses significant risks to the already imperiled Savannah River. We have added links within Mr. Baker’s article to provide our readers with more information. The Georgia PSC Commissioners will vote on the $169 million in expenditures for docket #29849 on August 18, 2015. To contact the Commission, click here. –Sara Barczak, SACE’s High Risk Program Director
Hearing in Vogtle Review Provides New Information on Project’s Cost by Bobby Baker
At the June 23rd hearing on the 12th Vogtle Construction Monitoring Review the Public Service Commission (“PSC”) Staff expert witnesses provided new information regarding the actual financial impact of the current 39 month delay in the construction schedule for Vogtle Units 3 and 4. While it is hardly newsworthy to report that the Project has fallen further behind schedule and the overall costs have increased, the PSC’s witnesses explained how the cost increases impact each residential ratepayer, quantified the total revenue requirement for the Project and refuted the Company’s claims regarding the alleged benefits of the Project.
Staff Witness Philip Hayet testified that the current 39 month delay would add $319.00 or $6.26 per month to the average residential ratepayer’s bill beginning in April 2016 and continuing to June 2020 in the form of higher fuel costs and Nuclear Construction Cost Recovery (“NCCR”) tariff payments.
Of the additional $319.00 in costs, 59% of the increase or $187.00 would be through higher NCCR monthly charges. The cost increase is especially significant to businesses because the $319.00 increase was for the average residential customer who uses 1,000 kilowatt hours per month. Obviously, electric customers with higher monthly electric usage would be paying significantly more in fuel and NCCR costs.
During cross examination concerning the current cost projection of $7.5 billion for Georgia Power Company’s share of the Project it was disclosed for the first time that the total revenue requirement just for Georgia Power’s share of the Project would be $30 billion. Knowing that the total revenue requirement for the project is four times the construction costs gives consumers an ability to evaluate the total Project costs. The current total revenue requirement for the Project is approximately $65 billion.
In the past few Vogtle reviews it was revealed that the cost for every day of delay is $2 million. This calculation was further clarified when it was explained that it did not contain payment of any taxes. The gross up on the $2 million daily cost with taxes would be approximately $2.92 million.
Finally, the PSC Staff witness refuted the Company’s claims regarding the alleged ratepayer benefits of the Project by testifying that the remaining $2.7 billion in alleged benefits claimed by the Company had shrunk down to no more than $208 million. This figure would be further reduced to negative $300 million if 50% of the production tax credits were removed from the calculation. Based on the Project’s current schedule it is highly unlikely that Unit 4 will be on line by December 31, 2020 to be eligible to receive $522 million in production tax credits.
While the testimony at the June 23 hearing was not reassuring to ratepayers, it did provide a clearer financial picture regarding the true costs of Vogtle Units 3 and 4, and reaffirmed the fact that the Project would see more construction delays.:… http://blog.cleanenergy.org/2015/07/07/hearing-on-new-vogtle-nuclear-reactors-provides-new-information-on-mounting-risks-and-costs/#sthash.NN53E6sH.dpuf
Breast Cancer Deaths Near Bradwell Nuclear Power Station, Essex, UK, 1995 to 2001
Location of Bradwell Nuclear Power Station – identified as ‘Magnox’.
Bradwell has Magnox type reactors, being “decommissioned”, by Magnox Ltd (controlled by Cavendish Fluor Partnership) https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Bradwell_nuclear_power_station
“Breast Cancer Mortality in Estuary Wards near Bradwell Nuclear Power Station, Essex, UK 2001-1995
by Christopher Busby 1*
1 Environmental Research SIA, 1117 Latvian Academy of Sciences, Riga LV-1050; Published: 05-12-2015
Abstract
Ecological studies near point sources of risk are generally modelled by distance bands involving data from small areas fitted into convenient radial area divisions. In contradistinction, this study examines risk of dying of breast cancer between 1995 and 2001 in wards adjoining the estuary of the River Blackwater in Essex, UK where measured radionuclide contamination exists in muddy sediment and other material, derived from discharges from the Bradwell Nuclear Power station. Estuary wards are compared with inland wards using Social Class adjusted expected numbers based on national mortality rates for the…
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#StopMoorside Today in Kendal
#StopMoorside Giant Postcard
#StopMoorside today in Kendal with Radiation Free Lakeland, Cumbria CND, Kick Nuclear, Kendal Green Party, and World Anti Nuclear Alliance. Many thanks to the wonderful musicians who came along to join the resistance to Europe’s biggest nuclear development. People were literally queuing up to sign the petition and to pledge to #BoycottToshiba. Resistance is Fertile!
July 9 Energy News
World:
¶ Four engineering students from Taiwan are heading to Iceland, Sweden and Norway to research on renewable energy this summer. The team plans to head to Iceland first, to study geothermal power, since 90% of Iceland’s energy is produced via geothermal generation. Financial help came from alumni. [China Post]
Krafla geothermal power plant in Iceland. Photo by Ásgeir Eggertsson. Creative Commons Attribution-Share Alike 3.0 Unported license. Wikimedia Commons.
¶ RenewableUK, the trade association representing the wind, wave and tidal energy industries, strongly criticised the Chancellor’s budget announcement that he is retrospectively changing the rules governing the Climate Change Levy. The green-tax break was designed to promote generating clean energy. [Energy Voice]
¶ India and Kazakhstan, the world’s largest producer of uranium, reached an agreement on uranium. Kazakhstan will supply India with 5,000 metric tons of nuclear fuel in the 2015-2019 period. In 2010 through 2014…
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Cracked Nuclear Reactor Shroud Warning Toll
“A deid (dead) Bell from Glasgow”
“Never send to know for whom the bell tolls; it tolls for thee.”
The Mühleberg Nuclear Reactor, near Bern Switzerland, powered down automatically (SCRAM), due to a problem with the water feed system at 11 am on Monday, July 6, 2015. The level of water in the reactor pressure vessel briefly dropped. This was caused by a problem with the water feed system. The reason for the problem is still being analyzed, according to ENSI. http://www.ensi.ch/fr/2015/07/06/centrale-nucleaire-de-muehleberg-arret-automatique-du-reacteur-en-raison-dun-derangement-dans-le-systeme-dalimentation/
Was this somehow caused by the heatwave in Switzerland? Was it caused by Mühleberg’s cracked reactor pressure vessel shroud, whose cracks have been growing since first found in 1990? A pump failure?
Whatever the cause, this incident is a reminder. It is like the banshee keening a warning sign of pending death, while washing the shroud of those about to die. It is the…
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July 8 Energy News
World:
¶ Market Research Store says the wind turbine market is poised to grow to $96.7 billion as countries impose stricter environment controls on the use for fossil fuels and coal to generate electricity. The fact that wind energy has reached parity for the long term comparative cost of energy, bodes well for growth. [CMO]
Tauernwindpark Oberzeiring, Styria, Austria. Photo by Kwerdenker. Creative Commons Attribution-Share Alike 3.0 Unported license. Wikimedia Commons.
¶ Panasonic Eco Solutions Canada Inc announced that it has signed a contract with Petawawa Renewable Power Corporation to build three 600-kW ground-mount solar PV projects in Ontario under the Ontario Power Authority / IESO Feed-in Tariff programs. Construction should start this summer. [solarserver.com]
¶ France’s Wind Energy Association said Tuesday the country has hooked 523 MW of wind parks to the grid in the first half of 2015, thus boosting its total installed wind…
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July 7 Energy News
Science and Technology:
¶ Driverless cars running on electric power can cut greenhouse gas emissions up to 90%, a study from Lawrence Berkeley National Laboratory says. The reduction in GHG emissions from 5% of 2030 vehicles being autonomous electric taxis would be greater than from 1,000 two-MW wind turbines. [International Business Times UK]
World:
¶ Austria formally filed a legal challenge at the European court of justice against EU-granted state subsidies for a new nuclear power plant in Britain. The announcement came only days after an alliance of 10 German and Austrian energy companies filed a separate legal challenge against Hinkley Point. [The Guardian]
Opponents see Hinkley Point C as an unnecessary show of support for nuclear energy. Photograph: EDF/PA.
¶ ReNew Power announced an agreement with Hareon Solar to develop a 72-MW solar power project in the Indian state of Andhra Pradesh. Hareon Solar will supply 234,161 crystalline…
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Nuclear Reactors and Blackouts: An Explosive Mix that caused the Fukushima Disaster
Highly nuclear dependent France suffered blackouts last week: “Europe heatwave brings blackouts and health fears for humans but icy treats for zoo animals” http://www.abc.net.au/news/2015-07-02/europe-feels-the-heat/6588854
“Heatwave hits French power production“, Tuesday 12 August 2003 17.21 BST “France has shut down the equivalent of four nuclear power stations… With temperatures in French rivers hitting record highs, some power plants relying on river water to cool their reactors have been forced to scale back production./ The French nuclear safety authority has given others permission to return the river water at a higher temperature than is normally allowed.” Read the rest here: http://www.theguardian.com/world/2003/aug/12/france.nuclear
During the 2003 heatwave, the Fessenheim nuclear reactor building had to be sprayed from the outside with water to avoid overheating and a subsequent shutdown (shutdown had taken place when the temperature reached 50 ° C (122 F) it reached 48.5 ° C (119 F)…
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Happy Austria Nuclear Free: Beacon of Hope for the World
35 Years Ago, on November 5, 1978, Austrians voted against putting an already built nuclear power plant online. In November 2012 the plant became a solar power plant. In July 2013 Austria voted to ban imported nuclear power.
Salzburg Austria, photo by Jiuguang Wang via Wikimedia
We would update the famous saying about Habsburg Austria’s foreign policy of intermarriage to prevent war: “BELLA GERANT ALII, TU FELIX AUSTRIA NUBE” (Let Others Wage War; You, Happy Austria, Marry) http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/List_of_Latin_phrases_(B) to
WHILE OTHERS IRRADIATE THEMSELVES, YOU HAPPY AUSTRIA ARE NUCLEAR FREE!
These two are perhaps more related than we might realize in that Austria’s 1955 neutrality may have helped facilitate its successful blocking of nuclear energy: “A 1951 study undertaken by the [US] AEC concluded that commercial nuclear reactors would not be economically feasible if they were used solely to produce electricity; they would be, however, if they…
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WE WILL NOT GO QUIETLY INTO DISASTER
QUIETLY INTO DISASTER
“Just as the use of nuclear energy for military purposes the use of nuclear fission for peaceful purposes in nuclear reactors is a crime against all of humanity.”
We Will NOT GO QUIETLY INTO DISASTER. #StopMoorside demonstration tomorrow 7th July in Kendal
Might You be Forced to be a Nuclear Worker? Snatched from a Cinema to Fight a Nuclear Fire?
As we’ve recently discussed, Savannah River Nuclear Site is one of the top “welfare to work” employers for several South Carolina counties. Temporary services are also top employers, and some of those workers may be sent to the Savannah River site, as well. The unemployed from neighboring areas and even the neighboring state of Georgia were rounded up by bus after the 2008 economic crisis, as part of the “Recovery Plan”, to work cleaning up Savannah River Nuclear Site (and probably other sites, like Hanford). They technically were not “forced”. Some few opted out. But, can one speak of choice in such a context? Many who didn’t ever know before, now understand since 2008, how close they are to homelessness. Some became homeless. The homeless have been picked up off the streets of Japan to work at the Fukushima Daiichi nuclear disaster site, as well. Some have observed that there…
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1 This Month
Chernobyl: The Lost Tapes – A good documentary on Chernobyl on SBS available On Demand for the next 3 weeks– https://www.sbs.com.au/ondemand/tv-program/chernobyl-the-lost-tapes/2352741955560
of the week–London Campaign for Nuclear Disarmament
Tell the Ukrainian Government to Drop Prosecution of Peace Activist Yurii Sheliazhenko
To see nuclear-related stories in greater depth and intensity – go to https://nuclearinformation.wordpress.com
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